


come back home

by Fluoradine



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch Era, Blackwatch Moira O'Deorain, Complicated Relationships, F/F, Light Angst, Near Death Experiences, Overwatch Retribution, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, Retribution, Trust, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 12:36:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14472897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluoradine/pseuds/Fluoradine
Summary: The Venice incident gets Angela nervous and Moira thinking. Near-death experiences can only bring a relationship closer, right?





	come back home

**Author's Note:**

> moicy. please clap.
> 
> the retribution event ends tomorrow god i wanted to get this out sooner....oh well, at least it's still relevant now. hope you enjoy the fic!

Moira was exhausted. The dropship from Venice had gotten back late last night - _very_ late. Blackwatch’s field team had barely gotten off before Morrison and Amari dragged them by the ears into a grilling session longer than a midnight sermon. The mission had been a disaster beyond disastrous - Moira knew if they’d just stuck to the plan, they might’ve been able to get out of the way before everything stacked up came crashing down on their heads. 

In the past year, Overwatch had become a weak link to the world it sought to protect. The glory days of the crisis were long forgotten after all the violence and legal clashes, attacks from Talon and public distrust. Moira knew the camel’s back was bending, but Blackwatch’s exposé was one hell of a straw to break it with. 

And Venice wasn’t even getting started on the worst of it. All throughout Morrison and Amari’s shouting, Moira had thought about her own plans, motives and partners kept secret even from her own team. The world knowing about Blackwatch was only the first block to fall in a tall tower, and although she sat somewhere near the bottom, it would get to her eventually. And when she was found out…

But it had only been twenty four hours since all that happened. Less, even. Moira was in Gibraltar now, the backup base that sat on a rough sea, ironically calm at the late hour. Her uniform was long since shed, her afternoon nap was over, and she’d taken a long, freezing shower before finally eating. It was supposed to be back to normal for everyone, including her - that was, if her work was ever normal. 

“You’re fucking stupid.”

Angela Ziegler almost broke the flask she was holding when Moira walked into the medical bay’s laboratory. The room was squished behind all the tiny clinics and operating theatres on the base, not even properly labelled on the directory, yet they still managed to end up there together. Angela was basically a stray dog Moira couldn’t shake, and she wasn’t surprised to hear her snarls so soon after getting back. 

“That’s a little harsh, don’t you think? Just because I don’t have a coat on doesn’t mean I’m out to break the rules.” Moira said, glaring at the doctor on her way to the hangers. It was quite a dark room - the medbay was crammed into the basement, and as a result was devoid of any light not coming from a fluorescent lamp. 

“What did you think you were doing in Venice? Throwing yourselves at Talon in the middle of downtown?” Angela paced after Moira asking. Moira didn’t want to pursue it - she had spent long enough trapped in between Reyes and McCree’s squabbles to earn avoiding her a day of bickering with the insufferable doctor. 

“What happened there and what lead to it is none of your business.” she told her. “It’s the kind of mess you don’t want your nose in.”

“I know a lot already,” Angela said. “Captain Amari had more than enough to shout about at breakfast this morning.” Had this been any other day, and perhaps over a smaller matter, Angela would have smirked, and continued on with her work. But she only scowled now, her face contorting up as Moira pulled on a lab coat. 

“Is nothing worthy of being classified anymore?” she muttered, trying not to stare. There was nothing for her to do here - Oslo had all her records and patients, and a doctor couldn’t exactly work without someone to work on. This lab was disgusting, anyways - some old experiments were sitting out and gathering dust, flasks still filled with solutions and grainy precipitates lying on tables. She could always clean it up, if Angela would leave her alone to do even that. 

“What were you thinking, Moira?” Angela persisted anyway, following Moira to an abandoned titration at the back of the room. “A Talon-guarded city with hundreds of entry points, no backup plan and you decide to turn it into a shooting range?”

“It wasn’t my decision. Commander Reyes had some eureka moment and brought all hell loose on the rest of us.” Moira said, ignoring the eyes piercing through her thick skin. 

“I thought Blackwatch had been warned,” Angela continued as she started to pour out the beakers. “You all forgot pretty quickly how easy it would’ve been to ban you from action.”

“I wasn’t aware how quickly you’d been promoted to mission coordinator.” Moira muttered again. 

“And in the middle of downtown. Without your Caduceus equipment, or any backup.” How caring she pretended to be when she was upset - this wasn’t the Angela Moira knew on any other day. “I hope you know how lucky you are to be alive.”

Moira put a bulb over the pipette, watching the dark purple liquid drain out as she squeezed. “As if you care whether I come back alive or dead.”

“You know I notice when you go,” Angela said. “What would they have told me if you got shot through the head by Talon’s snipers? Or if an assassin ripped you to shreds?”

The pipette emptied, and Moira yanked the bulb off. “Enough, Angela. You can stop pretending to value my life now that you have my attention.”

“I’m not asking for your attention, I’m asking for you to listen!” Angela reached her hand to yank Moira’s sleeve, but stopped barely an inch short. 

“Listen to what? What happened in Venice wasn’t my fault.” Moira snarled, smacking the pipette down on the table and grabbing another beaker. 

“Listen to me when I tell you how insane this was! All it would’ve taken was one Talon soldier to end it.” Angela’s voice grew louder, but its strength wavered as it did. “Just one bullet, and your body would be floating down the canal right now. All because you’d rather die than follow Overwatch’s plans. Was that what you were aiming for, some kind of hero’s death on the streets of Venice?”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Moira shouted, and lost her grip on the beaker. It fell in slow motion, the seconds before it hit the hard concrete floor lasting hours. But as one corner of it met with the ground, time resumed, and a thousand glass shards shattered everywhere within the blink of an eye.

Angela stopped. Moira fell silent. Her eyes should’ve went to the beaker’s remains, but instead they locked onto Angela’s eyes. Her wide, dark blue eyes, ringed with deep purple underneath and still filled with the hope of a new recruit. She was looking back into Moira’s, too, but what she saw must’ve been much, much different. 

“It wasn’t my fault.” Moira repeated. It was almost true. Reyes had been the one to kill Antonio in the moment. His hands had pulled the trigger that started the fight, but Moira’s own hands were far from clean. The secrets she kept, the things that she’d done for the very people she swore were her enemies, they were enough to ruin her and all of Overwatch within one day…

But Angela didn’t know about any of it. “I believe you,” she said, her eyes getting glossy with suppressed tears. “I know it wasn’t your fault.”

“But I was up all night.” she continued, gulping back the cry that almost escaped. Angela Ziegler wasn’t one to sob in anger - Moira had never seen her shed a single tear on the battlefield or even in the clinic. She was stronger than she believed, but also more sensitive than she let herself be. 

“Lena told me what was happening last night,” Angela said. “I felt sick. I didn’t sleep, I didn’t eat anything or talk to anyone until your ship landed. I thought I would never see you again. And I didn’t even remember what the last thing I said to you was.”

“Most likely some wisecrack or insult.” Moira said, but Angela shook her head.

“I know. And I couldn’t deal with that. Despite the things I say to you, you…” She sighed. “You mean a lot to me, Moira.”

Moira didn’t say anything. Her relationship with Angela was…complicated. They weren’t friends in the common sense - their work rivalled each other’s and they were constantly competing for recognition within the organization, yet they weren’t enemies. They cared for each other, even if neither of them admitted it, and they admired each other. They weren’t lovers, but they were far from strangers. 

“You mean a lot to me, too,” Moira told her. “I wasn’t going to die on that mission and never say goodbye.”

“Please, don’t ever do that again.” Angela said. She reached out her hand, and met Moira’s sleeve this time, tugging it down so she could touch her. “I don’t want you to die yet. Not until we’ve had more time.”

“I’m not going to die, Angela. I’m safe now. And I’m safe wherever I am,” Moira said, a little sigh escaping her lips. “Have faith in me, _achara._ ”

“I’ll try.” Angela squeezed Moira’s hand, but Moira couldn’t squeeze back. The glove that kept Angela’s fingers from touching hers covered up veiny skin, flesh ruined almost down to the bone that got greyer and greyer with every day. Her secret experiments had gotten poor results, so bad that she’d almost reported the technique to her partners as a failure. But it was too soon - she would have to conduct more tests, watch her arm decay for longer before deciding any fates. 

These tests were horrible. If Angela knew what kind of person Moira really was, she would never hold her hand, nor beg her to come home. More life was sucked from her every day, and the amount of information her partners received from the results was enough to destroy Moira’s whole world twice over, kill everything her and Angela had worked for…

But it was for science. She was working for the greater good. Blackwatch was, too - Reyes had been right to kill Antonio, no matter what Amari or Morrison claimed. There was disaster on the horizon, and it would take a certain kind of resilience to get through it unscathed. Moira would do everything she could do keep herself going - but she knew, in the end, there would be certain people she would have to leave behind.

**Author's Note:**

> please leave a kudo or comment if you enjoyed! tumblr is @ggdragons if you want to talk!


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